I Am Still Your Wall (3)
The morning sunlight pushed through the window.
And the chirping of birds began to tickle his ears.
Baek Cheon slowly opened his eyes.
He pushed the blanket aside, sat up, and glanced around the room.
It was, truly, a morning of utter stillness and peace.
But for Baek Cheon, it could never be just a peaceful morning.
Today, then.
Baek Cheon's eyes sank low as he looked out the window.
Tightening the cloth around his forehead, Baek Cheon quietly studied his reflection in the bronze mirror.
The black robes of Mount Hua, the plum blossom pattern embroidered over his chest, and the pure white headband tied across his brow.
Once again, he felt the reality of being a disciple of Mount Hua.
And then he imagined himself wearing Southern Edge's robes instead of Mount Hua's.
They do look alike.
His own face overlapped with Jin Geum-ryong's.
Even if they had been separated by some accident in childhood, they looked enough alike that the moment they met, anyone would know at once they were brothers.
With a low sigh, he sat in a chair and drew his sword.
Then he began wiping the blade with an oiled hemp cloth.
Swish.
Swish.
With every stroke, his heart seemed to settle a little more.
Perhaps.
Perhaps there had been another choice.
A life in which he ran from home, did not enter Mount Hua, and stayed in Southern Edge, learning under Jin Cho-baek while chasing after Jin Geum-ryong's shadow.
If that had been the case, things would have been very different now.
Did he regret it?
Not at all.
Family could exist without blood ties, without having spent every day of life together.
His family was no longer the Jin clan. His family was Mount Hua, and Mount Hua alone.
Today's duel would be the place to confirm all of that.
So he needed to sharpen his mind a little more—
Bang!
“……”
“Sasuk, you awake?”
“……”
Baek Cheon's eyes trembled as they fell on the person who had kicked open the door.
“How many times have I told you that doors are opened with your hands, not kicked in with your feet—”
“Ugh, whatever. The Sect Leader said to hurry up.”
“……”
Behind that bastard Chung Myung, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul poked their heads in.
“Sasuk, let's go.”
“We're all ready!”
Baek Cheon looked at the three of them for a moment, then gave a snort of laughter.
Yes, well. What of it? It didn't matter.
My family is here.
Smiling, he rose to his feet.
“Fine, you bastards. Let's go!”
“Oh? You're confident! Looks like you're dying to commit filicide by beating your brother to death!”
Ah…
Let's leave that one out.
Let's just leave that one out.
The crowd had actually gone a little quieter than before.
Of the vast number of original participants, only sixty-four remained now.
Having spent the entire time watching to see which sect was more impressive, the spectators were finally beginning to focus on who would win the tournament.
“Wouldn't Namgung Do-wi of the Namgung Family have the best chance?”
“What are you talking about! This is the year the Peng Family finally surpasses Namgung!”
“You hopeless fool. The Five Great Families can't surpass the Nine Sects and One Gang, that's just how it is. Shaolin's Hye Yeon is clearly going to win.”
“You can't leave out Wudang either!”
If there were a thousand people, there would be a thousand opinions. They had all watched the same duels, yet each person picked a different champion.
“It might not be one of the Nine Sects or the Five Great Families.”
“And what exactly do you mean by that?”
“There's Mount Hua, isn't there?”
“Ah, Mount Hua! Right!”
At the mention of Mount Hua, the crowd nodded all at once.
If someone had said that before the tournament began, they would have been mocked as a lunatic. But now no one objected.
“If it's the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, he really does have a shot at the championship!”
“Not just the Mount Hua Divine Dragon—Baek Cheon, the Righteous Sword of Mount Hua, isn't to be underestimated either. The swordsmanship he showed in the last duel was astonishing. Who could have imagined Mount Hua's sword would be so beautiful and so dazzling?”
“You don't know what you're talking about! Mount Hua has long been known as the Plum Blossom Sword Gate. Their swordsmanship has always been counted among the strongest in the martial world.”
“Then why did they fall?”
“Fall? What are you talking about? How could a sect that strong be called fallen?”
“Didn't they get driven out of the Nine Sects and One Gang?”
“I don't know the details, but I do know one thing.”
“Oh?”
The speaker grinned and went on.
“If Mount Hua wins this tournament, then returning to the Nine Sects and One Gang might not be impossible either.”
“Hmm. Well, that's true enough.”
People's eyes began drifting toward the side where Mount Hua stood.
The Nine Sects and One Gang changing…
Since ancient times, the Nine Sects and One Gang had been the symbol of the martial world. And though it was rare, there had been times when a sect that lost its momentum would be dropped from the Nine and replaced by a new one.
But one thing had never happened.
A sect that had once been expelled from the Nine Sects and One Gang had never, not even once, reclaimed that position.
What if something like that really happened?
This is getting interesting.
The crowd began looking at Mount Hua with a strange sort of anticipation.
“Chung Myung.”
“Yeah?”
“You hear that too, right?”
“Hear what?”
“People muttering about us.”
“So?”
Chung Myung turned to Jo Gul, looking puzzled.
Then Jo Gul confirmed there were no elders nearby and asked in a low voice, “If we win, can we really go back into the Nine Sects and One Gang?”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung's eyes widened.
And the other disciples' gazes all turned toward the two of them.
“The Nine Sects and One Gang?”
“We're going into the Nine Sects and One Gang?”
The faces of Mount Hua's disciples began to flush red.
The Nine Sects and One Gang?
Good heavens! Are we really allowed to hope for something like that?
It had only been three years since people had said Mount Hua would have to surrender its halls to creditors and take down the sect plaque.
And now, in just three years, the Nine Sects and One Gang?
They certainly didn't take the chatter of gossipers as gospel, but the very fact that such talk was circulating said everything about how Mount Hua's standing had changed. So the disciples of Mount Hua were nothing short of proud.
Just then, Yoon Jong chimed in.
“Now that I think about it, isn't it strange at all?”
“Huh?”
“There are many conditions for joining the Nine Sects and One Gang, but above all else, it comes down to military strength. And right now, we're proving that Mount Hua's martial power doesn't lose out to the Nine.”
He paused and swallowed hard.
“It may be too much to hope for right now, but if things continue this way, returning to the Nine might not be a dream. If that happens, then we'd truly be recreating the glory Mount Hua once had.”
Everyone fell into thought for a moment, and then their hearts swelled with dreams.
But the world is always full of people who can't bear to let others be happy in peace.
“Go back where?”
“……Huh?”
“Nine Sects and One Gaaaang?”
“……”
When Jo Gul saw Chung Myung tilt his head to the side, he closed his eyes tightly without even realizing it.
Why again?!
No, why is he like that all of a sudden?
Who screwed up? Who?!
The disciples slowly turned their heads away. At times like this, you absolutely could not make eye contact with that insane demon.
“No, listen here, you pitiful wretches who spent all your money and ended up living like beggars—have you really developed that beggar's mindset? Go back where? The Nine Sects and One Gang? Why the hell would we go there? Do you people have no pride?”
Chung Myung's eyes went feral as he raised his voice.
“Good grief, how low can your pride be that you'd crawl back to the very people who kicked Mount Hua aside because they thought we were useless? Why? If you're going to grovel somewhere, why not wag your tail and go back to Southern Edge too, huh? Say let's all get along again!”
“No, that's not what we meant—”
“Even if those bastards came back begging on their knees for us to rejoin, we still wouldn't go back into the Nine. Tell them to go eat shit!”
Chung Myung was now so overheated he looked ready to start foaming at the mouth.
“I get so pissed off just thinking about those Nine Sects bastards! Just thinking about them makes my blood boil! My temper just—just—”
“C-calm down, Chung Myung! I was wrong!”
Seeing Chung Myung on the verge of toppling over backwards, Jo Gul broke out in a cold sweat.
In truth, from Chung Myung's point of view, this reaction was entirely natural.
The other disciples didn't have much feeling about Mount Hua being expelled from the Nine Sects and One Gang. After all, Mount Hua hadn't been one of the Nine when they entered the sect; they simply assumed the sect had declined and lost its qualifications.
But Chung Myung knew what secrets hid behind Mount Hua's expulsion, so the mere mention of the Nine Sects made the back of his neck ache.
He wanted to drive plum trees straight through the smug faces of each and every one of them.
And now what?
Rejoin the Nine Sects and One Gang?
“No, no! Not even if you gave it away for free! Screw the Nine Sects, just get lost!”
“We get it, so calm down already!”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong grabbed Chung Myung and barely managed to hold him back. But when he still showed no signs of calming down, they eventually sought help.
“Sasuk, please do something about this idiot!”
But Baek Cheon only frowned with a flat, indifferent expression.
“Why? He isn't wrong.”
“……Pardon?”
And then he said it firmly.
“Do you have no pride? Bowing your heads and crawling back to the place that threw us away? I oppose that. What is the Nine Sects and One Gang that it's so great?”
“……”
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul smiled faintly.
Ah, so even that man is becoming more and more hopeless by the day.
But Baek Cheon cut them off again in a cool voice.
“I'm not joking.”
At his serious tone, Mount Hua's disciples tensed slightly and looked at him with hardened expressions.
“What we need to do is not earn good results so they can look favorably on us. We need to prove that Mount Hua can be an excellent sect entirely on its own, even without being part of the Nine Sects and One Gang.”
Chung Myung nodded vigorously.
“Exactly, exactly.”
Then he stared quietly at Baek Cheon and spoke.
“Then you know what you have to do, right, Sasuk?”
“I do. I know.”
Baek Cheon's gaze turned toward the duel stage.
The moment of decision was drawing near. He took his sword and rose to his feet.
“I need to prove to everyone here that Mount Hua's sword doesn't lose to the swords of the Nine Sects.”
Chung Myung grinned.
“Go win.”
“Of course.”
Baek Cheon took a short breath and walked toward the duel stage.
Hyun Sang was waiting for him ahead with a determined expression.
“Elder, I'll be going.”
“Baek Cheon.”
“Yes.”
Hyun Sang said with grave emphasis, “I know this is a match that places a heavy burden on you. But you must show them. You, and no one else.”
“I understand. Please don't worry.”
“Good. I will wait and believe in you.”
As encouragement, Hyun Sang gave Baek Cheon's shoulder a few light pats.
At last, Baek Cheon nodded and headed for the stage.
I have to prove it.
Baek Cheon understood the meaning of those words.
Chung Myung was not the one who had to prove Mount Hua's sword.
He was beyond genius.
No matter what sect Chung Myung had entered other than Mount Hua, he would have become the strongest under heaven. Hell, even if he'd joined some third-rate back-alley sect, he would have torn their martial arts apart and reworked them until he stood at the top of the world.
For someone like that, which sect he had grown in meant nothing.
So Baek Cheon had to prove it.
That Mount Hua's sword was in no way inferior to the swords of the Nine Sects. No—without the empty prestige of being one of the Nine, it could in fact be even stronger than those who wore that prestige like a mask.
And just then, a familiar face was climbing onto the opposite side of the duel stage.
Yes. He would prove it.
Against Jin Geum-ryong himself.
Tap.
Standing on the duel stage, Baek Cheon raised his head and looked up at the sky.
Blue.
The cloudless sky was so high that merely looking at it made him feel as if he might be pulled into it.
It was like this that day too.
The day he had run away from home and headed for Mount Hua.
That sky had been just as clear, just as clean.
It was time to prove the resolve he had held then, the path he had chosen then.
Slowly, Baek Cheon lowered his head.
Jin Geum-ryong's face was cold to the extreme. His frozen expression and the faint, glimmering traces of chill murderous intent had completely changed the impression he gave.
For anyone who knew the Jin Geum-ryong of old, it would have been a change worth regretting.
But as a swordsman?
Like a tempered blade.
Sharpened so viciously that it seemed as though he could cut down anything with the slightest touch.
That was exactly what Jin Geum-ryong looked like now.
How hard must he have driven himself to become like that?
They had chosen different roads and would therefore stand opposed, but Baek Cheon still felt a quiet, genuine respect for Jin Geum-ryong's will.
“Baek Cheon of Mount Hua requests a duel with Jin Geum-ryong of Southern Edge.”
With a brief martial salute, Baek Cheon looked at Jin Geum-ryong with solemn eyes.
Jin Geum-ryong's lips slowly curled upward.
“Arrogant fool.”
Snick.
His sword slid free at last. Bathed in the sunlight, the blade shone white as snow.
“I acknowledge it.”
“……”
“You have grown strong. The foolish, impetuous brat of the past has become a swordsman in his own right.”
Baek Cheon's body jolted.
A flash of confusion flickered in his eyes as he looked at Jin Geum-ryong.
All his life, he had never once been acknowledged by Jin Geum-ryong. He had never even heard the slightest hollow compliment.
And yet now, in this situation, that very Jin Geum-ryong was admitting Baek Cheon's strength.
“But.”
Jin Geum-ryong was not finished.
He smiled with a twisted curl of his lips.
“You're still far from enough.”
“……”
“Today I will make you understand. The farther you go, the farther I go too. And the gap between us is one you'll never close in your entire life.”
Then he glared at Baek Cheon and said icily, “I am still your wall.”
“……”
“And I'll be your wall for the rest of your life.”
A smile also touched Baek Cheon's lips.
It was a gentle smile, different from Jin Geum-ryong's twisted sneer.
“That's impossible.”
“……What did you say?”
“I have a different wall.”
“……”
“A wall so enormous that it can't even be compared to someone like you, brother.”
“……”
“So allow me to show you. A wall exists only to be surpassed.”
“Arrogant fool.”
No more words were necessary between them.
They simply stared at each other, heightening the tension between them.
The sounds of the world slowly disappeared.
The murmuring of the crowd, the thunderous cheers of his fellow disciples, and finally even the rustle of the wind brushing past his ears all faded away.
At that moment—
“Here I go!”
“Taaaaaaah!”
Baek Cheon and Jin Geum-ryong both surged forward at full speed, neither waiting for the other, charging straight toward one another.